Jury deliberations began Thursday in the trial of a 39-year-old woman accused of fatally shooting her husband during a dispute at their Coachella home.
Cindy Gicela Parra is charged with murder, assault with a deadly weapon, spousal abuse and sentence-enhancing gun and great bodily injury allegations for the 2022 death of Francisco Lopez.
After more than a week of testimony, the prosecution rested Wednesday, followed almost immediately afterward by the defense, with both sides delivering closing arguments at the Larson Justice Center Thursday.
Riverside County Court Superior Court Judge James Hawkins sent the jury behind closed doors to begin deliberating. The panel was slated to resume deliberations Friday morning.
Parra is being held in lieu of $1 million bail at the Smith Correctional Facility in Banning.
There were conflicting accounts regarding what happened between the defendant and victim, whose relationship was plagued with dissension.
On the day of the alleged killing, Aug. 7, 2022, the defendant, who had only recently returned to living at home after moving out because of an extramarital affair, and victim had been to a store to purchase items for their business, during which time they argued intensely, according to the District Attorney’s Office.
Sheriff’s Detective Ricardo Ramirez testified in Parra’s 2023 preliminary hearing that when he initially interviewed her, she said she was in the backyard making carnitas with her husband, when he abruptly confronted her with a handgun that he kept in the bedroom. The defendant told the investigator she managed to grab the pistol, then put it back in a drawer.
Parra then proceeded to detail different scenarios about what transpired as daybreak approached, Ramirez said, including one in which Lopez pulled the gun away from her after she initially took possession of it and shot himself in the head.
The second scenario was that the defendant maintained control of the firearm and leveled it at Lopez, who told her, “If you have balls, pull the trigger,” at which point she shot him in the forehead, the detective alleged.
“She said after she called 911, she went back to Francisco’s body and placed the handgun … underneath his hand,” Ramirez testified.
Deputies arrived at the couple’s home in the 84-000 block of Fiesta Road shortly after 5 a.m. to investigate reports of a shooting and found Lopez dead from the head wound.
Parra was questioned at the scene and later at the sheriff’s Thermal station, culminating in her arrest the same day.
She has no documented prior felony convictions. However, according to the prosecution’s trial brief, there had been assault allegations against her in 2022 after she struck her husband with a vehicle during a driveway squabble, causing him to roll completely over the car and land on his face.